In connection with the release of a study by US-based short-selling company Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group, another PIL has been filed. This time, the PIL requests the creation of a committee with a former Supreme Court judge as its chair to look into the information in the Research Report. 

Vishal Tiwari, the petitioner, emphasised the dire situation and fate of people when shares "dive" in the stock market for a variety of causes.

"Lots of people who had the whole life time saving in such stocks gets a maximum setback due to fall in such shares with huge amount of money getting into drain. Various instances of suicides and other life taking incidences come up because of such huge loss of money where lifesaving of individuals is invested in."

The PIL petition also compared the length of sanctions received by regular people and large organisations. While huge company entities receive loans for thousands and millions of crores in a short period of time, this process is difficult for the general public. 

According to the petition, several investors who had put their entire life savings into these shares have lost a significant sum of money as a result of the publishing of the Hindenburg Report. The market value of all 10 Adani stocks has halved as a result of a "unprecedented onslaught on billionaire Gautam Adani's huge company by Hindenburg," according to the petition, leaving investors with a staggering loss of Rs. 10 lakh crore.

"In the last seven trading sessions since the release of the report by the American short-seller, the market capitalization of all 10 Adani Group stocks is down by over 51% to Rs 9.31 lakh Crore. Adani Group stocks fell 5-20% on Friday, wiping out ₹3.19 trillion in investor wealth after Hindenburg Research said it stood by its findings of alleged share price manipulation and accounting fraud by the conglomerate".

The petitioner claims that the State Bank of India, one of India's largest financial institutions, has given loans totaling $2.6 billion to companies in the Adani Conglomerate without following any formal loan disbursement procedures, leaving it unclear under what standards and laws this public money is haphazardly being used.

"The question that public interest now throws upon is how such public money is being floating in the money market without any refined process of loan being disbursed and such therefore has shaken the country through its huge exposure after the Hindenburg Report."

The study was dismissed by Adani Enterprises as "unresearched" and "maliciously nasty," but the current PIL sought to focus on the plight of those investors who lost money with no recourse. 

The appeal contended that such an uncontrolled loan disbursal with such a substantial loss due to such a vast exposure has damaged public money overall with no remedy being addressed by the Respondents as to how to recoup the damages in relation to public money.

"It is ultimately the public money for which the Respondents are answerable and there needs to be strict concern for mitigating of such loan with clear process and sanction policy for such high-stake loan amount."

In this context, the petition also asked for instructions on how to form a special committee to oversee the sanctioning of high-power loans to large corporations that exceed Rs. 500 crores. 

Advocate ML Sharma, a frequent litigator, recently filed another PIL in an effort to classify "short-selling" as a fraud offence. He wants Nathan Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg, to be investigated, "for exploiting innocent Investors via short selling under the garb of artificial crashing".

Case Title: Vishal Tiwari vs UOI

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